"The government will not tolerate statements that create dissonance in our society and disrespect for others."
Jean Augustine, former Minister of State for Multiculturalism

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Toronto Flushed

We're all tired of taking shit from Toronto, figuratively. Some are tired of taking shit from Toronto, literally:

Toronto is scrambling to find new sites for its smelly sewage sludge after yesterday's surprise news that a Michigan landfill will no longer take the city's daily shipments of 13-15 trucks, as of Aug. 1.

Despite the short notice -- barely two months -- and past difficulties in finding a home for the human sewage processed at Toronto's water-treatment plants, city officials said they are not panicking.

"It's premature to be going ballistic, but I know people love to," said Councillor Shelley Carroll (Don Valley East), chairwoman of the city's works committee. "There is a challenge and we will have to work awfully hard for 60 solid days, but I think it is solvable."

In essence, the city will have to find other sites, likely in Ontario, to take the 160,000 tonnes a year of the treated sludge, which represents about 15 per cent of all Toronto waste shipped to Michigan.

But the search for alternative sites in Ontario is sure to trigger political reaction from nearby communities with landfills.

I would suggest that everybody else dump theirs on Toronto, but that's like shipping coals to Newcastle.